Rabfak (from , a

syllabic abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...

of Рабочий факультет, ''Rabochiy fakul′tet'', "workers' faculty") was a type of

educational institution An educational institution is a place where people of different ages gain an education, including preschools, childcare, primary-elementary schools, secondary-high schools, and universities. They provide a large variety of learning environments a ...

in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

which prepared Soviet workers and peasants to enter

institutions of higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational school ...

. Such institutions were present in every faculty and institute for higher learning and tended to contain a density of members of either the

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

or the VKP(B). The ''rabfaki'' were created by Mikhail Pokrovskii in March 1919 and were active until the 1940s. They were intended for adults who had received little formal schooling and were intended as a fulfilment of the promises of the Revolution for upwards social mobility for workers and peasants.

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See also